


Shadowtide

by LettersByTheLake



Series: Artist Appreciation [5]
Category: Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda) - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: A little bit of gore, Fight Scene, Gen, Haunted House, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Spooky, Vaguely crack, celebration, skyloft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:20:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27618944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LettersByTheLake/pseuds/LettersByTheLake
Summary: The Links get an opportunity to relax at one of Skyloft's colourful celebrations, but, of course, there is no rest for the heroes of Hyrule.
Relationships: Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind (Linked Universe)
Series: Artist Appreciation [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1986214
Comments: 2
Kudos: 63





	Shadowtide

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rainydaz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainydaz/gifts).



> This is a piece inspired by Rainy's wonderful artwork that can be found [here](https://rainydaz.tumblr.com/post/620415450058227712/happy-early-birthday-rinku-of-hyrule-was)! It's based on one of those haunted house memes (you know the ones) and is extremely funny!

Skyloft was… vibrant.

And it wasn’t like Legend didn’t like vibrant, he wasn’t that much of a buzzkill that he was going to fault a place for being too colourful. It was just that he wasn’t used to it. Where he came from people were trying too hard to survive to worry about decorations or fancy lamps.

There were so many fancy lamps.

“We must have got here just in time for the Shadowtide celebrations!” Sky had exclaimed delightedly when they arrived and when everyone just stared at him blankly, he had explained:

Apparently here there were periods of time where the sun switched off. Frankly, if the sun ever switched off during Legend’s time, he was pretty sure there would be chaos and his neighbours would start preparing for the end of the world, but because of the Skyloftians good fortune and nature to trust in the goodness of the world, they believed this event was a sign from Hylia.

According to Sky, it was something to do with the moon blocking the sun, and though it was rare and only occurred a handful of times in one lifetime, they could always tell when it was going to happen because they had very advanced astronomers at the Academy.

Legend had zoned out after a while and didn’t really understand all the details behind it, but he gathered enough to know that it was a big event here and they fell into full celebration whenever it happened. Hence the fancy lamps.

From where they were standing, they had an elevated view over the whole floating island (Legend didn’t even want to get started on the whole flying, Goddess-blessed wonderland that was Sky’s home) and truly it was an impressive sight to behold.

A patchwork spiderweb of banners and bunting of various bright colours were hung from every building, statue, and structure, and every space on the ground was filled with colourful market stalls and rides.

Legend thought back to the time his uncle had taken him to a travelling fair that came to their village, and though he recognised some of the rides (Ferris wheel, helter-skelter), the drab, makeshift fairground he remembered from his childhood was laughable in comparison to what lay before him.

It seemed the whole of Skyloft was outside to enjoy the festivities, and crowds of flamboyantly dressed Hylians weaved through each other like ants. Strange bird-like creatures Legend assumed must be Loftwings flew over the scene adding to the whole magical fantasy-like atmosphere.

The lanterns covered all the surfaces that weren’t already taken. From the one’s nearest to them, Legend could see they were all handcrafted out of tinted clay. Some of them had elaborate and beautiful designs while others looked like they could have been made by children.

It was all very overwhelming and took a few moments for Legend to make sense of all the things assaulting his senses at once.

“Woa,” said Wind in an excited hushed voice, “this is so cool.”

Legend was pleased to see that, bar Wind, Warriors and Sky, the rest of his friends looked just as overwhelmed as he felt.

“We used to have a celebration like this every year before the war,” said Warriors looking out at it all happily. He didn’t seem at all fazed by the huge numbers of people.

“Why did the portal even take us here,” asked Wild, “Sky said they don’t get any monsters on Skyloft any more.” The poor Hylian looked absolutely overwhelmed, his body overly tense and tucked in on itself. Legend didn’t suppose the Hero of the Wild had much experience with crowds.

“Maybe Hylia wanted to give us all a break?” smiled Sky happily. It was alright for him; he already knew this place and was the least likely to get trampled by hordes of over-jolly celebrators.

Time seemed to visibly compose himself where he stood and he was still very hesitant when he said, “Sky’s right, we should take this opportunity to relax! Goddess knows we need it.” Sky’s face lit up like one of the many lanterns that littered the earth.

“This is going to be so fun! First of all though, I think we should go to the Knight’s Academy and let the headmaster know we’ve arrived.”

“Aw, do we all have to go? I want to explore the fair,” asked Wind.

“I suppose not,” said Time, “how about Sky and I go then catch up with you all later. Just remember to stay together and watch out for any unusual activity. I’m sure there must be a reason why we were brought here.”

“You’ll never find us again,” muttered Twilight looking miserably at the large crowd below. Time either didn’t hear or ignored him and followed Sky down the hill before being swallowed into the hordes of Hylians.

Four looking to the place where they had disappeared.

“This is going to end badly.”

Legend couldn’t help but agree. The Links were not made for settings like this and images of Wild blowing market stalls up or Hyrule being lost forever flashed through his mind.

“What are we waiting for, let’s go!” cried Wind eagerly before grabbing Warriors’ arm and pulling him down the hill.

“Hey, wait!” Twilight called after him in a panicked tone, pulling a startled Wild behind him and motioning for the others to follow. Four did so hastily, not wanting to be left behind and Legend started to go after them too before a hesitant hand on his forearm made him stop. Hyrule was standing sheepishly behind him.

“Um- could we maybe just stay here?” he asked quietly, and he looked so forlorn Legend thought his heart might melt.

“Why, what’s wrong,” he asked, though he had an idea.

“I’m just not… used to this many people.”

Right, Hyrule’s world wasn’t exactly densely populated. He felt his expression soften slightly and he leaned in.

“Me too,” he said, “actually, I hate crowds, but we have to make sure the others don’t get lost. Those idiots couldn’t function without us.”

Hyrule gave a shy smile and hesitated before nodding his head.

“You can hold my hand if you want,” Legend joked with a wicked grin and Hyrule rolled his eyes.

“Shut up, let’s just go,” and they walked down the hill and into the crowd.

It was as stuffy and uncomfortable as Legend had imagined it would be and he found himself leaning into Hyrule to prevent the bodies around them jostling them so much. Luckily it was pretty easy to locate the others as they hadn’t gone far, and they reached them just in time to hear Twilight chastising Wind about running off by himself.

“Oh come on, Twi, live a little,” said Warriors, “it’s not every day we get to actually have fun.” Legend was surprised, Warriors was usually pretty uptight about rules.

“Fine, just don’t run off again. Let’s stick together, yeah?”

Warriors clapped him on the shoulder.

“Sure Twi, whatever you say. Now I for one would like a go with that high-striker over there.”

“What’s a high-striker,” whispered Hyrule as Warriors walked over to a curious looking attraction with a huge pole with numbers and a bell on top.

“I don’t know but I think we’re going to find out,” he replied as they followed him interestedly.

“This here is a _real_ major test of strength, Wild,” Warriors said with a smug grin.

Legend snorted.

“Oh, I should have known you just wanted to show off Captain.”

“Too right,” he replied, smirking.

“Bet you 20 rupees he’ll beat the high score,” said Four quietly.

“Bet you double Twi will beat his,” Legend countered.

By the time both Warriors and Twilight had both had their turn, Legend was walking away 40 rupees richer and the captain was rambling about how it must have been rigged.

“I mean, did you _see_ how that guy running it looked at me? He clearly had it out for me from the start, he must have changed the numbers or something.”

“Nah, you see these arms? Pure muscle from all the goat herding. It’s a tough job, not one for puny men like you, Captain.”

“Wha- puny?! I’m a captain of the royal army I’ll have you know!”

Twilight was clearly enjoying himself a lot more now, despite the crowds.

“Don’t worry, you’ve still got the best hair, Wars,” said Wind, “now can we please do something fun?”

“Sorry Wind, what do you want to do?”

Legend did not like the mischievous glint in the sailor’s eye.

“Haunted house?” he replied in his most innocent voice and Legend’s eyes were drawn to where he was pointing.

It seemed there was one exception to the rainbow wonderland that was Skyloft, and that was a big, black, boarded up mansion, a sign overhead in peeling paint saying, ‘HAUNTED HOUSE’. Even through the crowd, Legend could see it was very purposefully made to look drab, the windows shattered and dirtied and the front door hanging off its hinges. There were poes and stals outside it crafted from various materials, and the overall effect looked very tacky in his opinion.

“Why would you want to go into the least fun looking thing on this island?” asked Four exasperatedly.

“No, it is fun, I swear! There used to be one of these near where I live and me and Aryll would go together and scare ourselves.”

“I thought we were taking a break from being scared, that’s literally our entire lives,” Legend replied dubiously.

“What, you scared Leg?”

“Not on your life, pretty boy.”

“Prove it.”

“Fine, let’s go.”

He strode towards the building, ignoring the Twilight’s cries of “Wait!” behind him.

They managed to get in for free when they made it clear they were friends with the chosen champion and the ticket guy looked really excited and rambled a bit about what a great friend he was to him, blah, blah… He got it, everyone loved Sky. So long as it saved him money.

The building interior was somehow pretty silent, the noises of the crowd muffled through the walls. Hyrule and Wild seemed to visibly relax as they stepped inside. Huh, maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

The room they were in was small and dark, only a single dim candle giving enough light to see the outlines of each other’s faces and the peeling wallpaper behind them. Wind looked excited, Warriors pretty relaxed, Twilight stressed as usual, Wild and Hyrule just pleased to be out of the crowds and Four extremely exasperated.

“Did you really have to rise to the bait Leg? Again?”

He shrugged.

“Okay,” started Twilight, “we all need to stick together, we don’t want anyone getting lost, and the man said-“

“Yeah we get it, don’t run off, we’re not children Twi,” said Wild practically rolling his eyes.

“Umm technically that’s not true,” muttered Hyrule.

“And we’re separating Hyrule and Wild because we’ve already established they can’t be trusted-“

“Twi, please, let’s just go.”

“Okay, okay, sorry.”

They all stepped through the big door that signalled the start of the ‘experience’ and started walking down a narrow hallway.

It had the same patterned, peeling wallpaper as the first room they were in, though it was slightly better lit. It was so narrow they had to go single file, Twilight at the front and Warriors and Wind at the back. So far, nothing seemed particularly spooky to Legend, but then he imagined his terror-o-meter was a little skewed compared to most.

A high-pitched noise suddenly filled the air and Twilight stopped, leading Four to crash into the back of him.

“Was that a scream?”

“Oh, yeah,” Wind answered casually, “probably one of the other people in here.”

“Er… okay.” Twilight’s eyes were wide as he carried on.

They soon came across three doors on each side of the hallway with white, peeling paint and as soon as the group was standing directly outside the third one, a man dressed as a Lizalfos jumped out suddenly, making them all jump. Warriors, however, let out an extremely high-pitched scream that had Legend looking for the woman that had apparently joined the group.

The Lizalfos man retreated back into the door.

“Oh my goddess, War, please tell me you didn’t just scream like a fucking princess,” Legend said in hysterics.

“No way,” said Wind who was doubled over and laughing just as hard, “all the princesses I know would never have screamed that loud.”

“I wasn’t expecting it!” he defended grumpily.

“That was certainly impressive,” snickered Twilight, “who knew the Captain was actually a scaredy-cat under all that armour.”

“Shut up! You were just as scared.”

“He didn’t scream though,” laughed Wild, “Ah, that was too good.”

“Let’s just go.”

They entered the next room, Warriors muttering darkly behind them, and came face to face with a wall of mirrors. Four visibly shivered.

“You alright Four?” asked Wild and he got a nod in return.

“Look, I think I see an opening over here,” said Twilight and he started to walk through a doorway in the reflective wall. It was confusing and disorientating being surrounded by the shiny glass surfaces and seeing themselves reflected back at them at various angles. Legend had to admit it was uncomfortable not knowing who or what could be hiding around the next corner.

It seemed to be a maze of sorts, passageways entirely made up of floor-length mirrors and it was difficult to know which way to go. Hyrule even walked into one of them face first at one point.

Halfway through, another person dressed in what he supposed was supposed to be a scary poe costume jumped out of one of the hidden mirror doorways and scared the living daylights out of Twilight and Wild judging by their faces.

That seemed to trigger a sequence of jump scares from then on, costumed Hylians constantly jumping out at them every which way. In Legend’s opinion, it was happening so much it kind of lost its fear factor. Nevertheless, the others jumped at every single one.

Four and Hyrule had opted to just close their eyes and ignore everything going on around them and the strange noises that had started echoing around the maze. They hunched in on themselves and allowed the others to guide them in the right direction.

When they finally made their way out of the mirror room, Legend was relieved it was over. All those looking glasses were giving him a headache. The next room was more open than the previous hallways with grey walls and shredded bits of material hanging from the ceiling, perfect for men in costumes to hide behind.

“You managed to keep your screams contained pretty well, pretty boy,” he teased, to which there was no answer.

“War?” he asked, looking behind him to see… nothing.

“Um, guys,” he said, turning to the front, “not to freak you out or anything, but we seem to have lost Wind and War.”

“What?!” exclaimed Twilight, “agh, I knew this was going to happen.”

“Should we maybe go back to look for them?”

“Heck no, I’m not going back there, let’s just meet them outside.”

“Wow,” Legend deadpanned, “some leader you are, have a few fake jump scares and you’re ready to leave your men behind.”

“They’ll be fine, War knows to wait for us when they get out.”

“See Twi,” said Wild, “it isn’t always me and ‘Rule.”

“99% of the time Wild, 99% of the time.”

“Let’s go, I want to get out of here as soon as possible,” Four stated briskly.

“Wait, I think we should all hold onto each other.”

“Aw you scared, Twi, you need some hugs?”

“No! I just don’t want anyone getting else getting lost.”

“I think it’s a good idea,” said Hyrule quietly. Legend rolled his eyes.

“Fine, but you’re all a bunch of scaredy-cats.”

And so they continued through the room, Legend holding a bunch of Hyrule’s tunic in one hand as the traveller cowered, _literally cowered,_ at the various people that jumped out. He had heard Twilight scream at least four times.

If anyone could see them now, the legendary heroes of Hyrule, reduced to cowering messes by none other than a fairground attraction…

“Why do people like scaring themselves,” Hyrule asked him after a particularly loud jump scare in which someone had dropped from the ceiling. They had moved through several rooms by now and had come to one that looked like a traditional temple. The one’s they explored and defeated almost every day.

“I guess people in Skyloft don’t come across many terrifying things like we do. I think-“

A bokoblin jumped in front of their path with a noise that sounded nothing like a real one and Hyrule let out a little squeal.

“- _I think_ they must do it for the adrenaline high. You know, like that good feeling you get in the middle of battle. Sky said they don’t get many enemies up here anymore, so I guess they do this for fun now.”

“I guess… I don’t really get it though. I always get the shakes after battles; I wouldn’t want to do it for fun.”

“And yet, here we are. I agree with you though.”

Another monster jumped out in front of Twilight and he screamed. It was a little more manly than Warriors’ had been, but still nothing to be proud of.

“Twi, would you be quiet, you’re going to attract more.”

“Legend do you even have a soul?! How is this not scaring you?”

“Honestly, I think Ravio might’ve sold my soul along with the rest of my stuff.”

“Seriously though,” asked Four, “how are you not terrified right now?”

“You literally defeated Ganon, the real question is, why is this scary to _you_?”

“He has a point,” agreed Wild just before someone jumped out of the wall in front of him and he almost fell over.

“Pathetic, the lot of you,” said Legend shaking his head. At this point the jump scares weren’t even lifting his heartrate, he was long past being surprised by any of them.

That was until they reached a room designed to look like a creepy children’s nursery and some sort of huge stal creature jumped through one of the walls in a huge crash, plaster and wallpaper flying everywhere. He had to admit, that one was impressive. It was huge and freakishly realistic; he couldn’t even make out anyone inside the costume.

“Is that a stal… moblin?” asked Four, “they’re getting pretty creative.”

“I have those in my world,” said Wild to which Twilight looked horrified.

“Wait…” Legend was getting a really bad feeling as the huge creature lumbered towards them with a huge sword, “I don’t see anyone in the costume… GUYS I DON’T THINK THAT’S A COSTUME…”

He unsheathed his tempered sword from his bag where it was hidden and saw the others follow suit.

“Is it real? Oh Hylia, what if it is just a person.”

“Yeah it must be, look at it, no one is that big.”

Legend made a decision that he was fairly confident was the right one and ran at the beast. He ducked its initial swing and used the split-second opening to lob it’s head clean of it’s body. It rolled grotesquely towards Wild who lifted his foot and crushed it under his body weight, the bone splintering into the ground.

The body, which had continued to move even after the head had been disconnected, fell to the floor in a pile of bones.

“Please tell me that was real, and I didn’t just murder some poor Hylian.”

“Pretty sure Hylian bodies don’t continue to move after they get their head chopped off,” said Twi, “although that was certainly a risk you took there, Leg.”

“Actually,” began Wild, “I’ve seen cucco’s walk around without heads before, right after they’ve been chopped off.”

“Sure you have.”

“It’s true!”

“That is not the most pressing issue right now!” interjected Twilight, “We need to check if there are any more around here.”

“We would have seen them if they were behind us, there’s only one route, so I think we should just move forward and keep our weapons out.”

“Okay, but think before you stab, we don’t want to be responsible for the deaths of any innocent people. We have to be _100% sure_.” He looked at Legend when he said that.

“Hey, I was right, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah, good job too, you don’t want another bounty on your head.”

“Wait, what?”

“Hyrule, I told you that in secret.”

“Whoops, sorry.” 

Legend glared as he carried on, the whole group a lot tenser now that the threat was potentially real.

“Why is it that when you’re actually in danger, you’re all silent and not scared?”

“I think it’s a focus thing,” said Hyrule as someone jumped out from the shadows. They all tensed but relaxed as they identified the obvious costume.

They didn’t have much of the haunted house left and surprisingly they encountered nothing more out of the ordinary aside from a few overly enthusiastic actors in costume. They passed through four more rooms made to look like the interior of a… well of a haunted house he guessed; one bathroom, a bedroom, a dining room with creepy portraits on the walls and finally what was probably meant to be a kitchen with loads of fake (he hoped) body parts cut up along the side.

They came out the other end into blissful cool air, squinting their eyes against the bright sun.

“What took you guys so long?!” came a voice. Legend’s eyes steadily adjusted to see Wind jogging over to them, Warriors a little way behind him.

“Wait, how did you get out before us?” asked Hyrule.

“Yeah, that doesn’t make any sense…”

Wind just shrugged.

“You took ages,” said Warriors as he reached them.

“We need to get them to shut down the attraction until someone checks for more,” said Twilight seriously.

“Er, what?” asked Wind as Twilight ran around the side of the house to talk to the ticket office.

“Legend killed an actual Stalmoblin,” said Wild matter-of-factly and Warriors looked startled.

“Are you sure it wasn’t a-“

“Yes, I’m sure it wasn’t a person,” interrupted Legend irritably, “I’m not a murderer.”

“Woa, how come we didn’t see it?”

“It came out of the wall, I don’t know.”

Legend was feeling pretty drained and zoned out of the conversation a bit. He wondered if there was such thing as a real safe haven in this world, or any of them. No matter how hard they tried, evil always seemed to win.

“Do you think there are more in there?”

“We didn’t come across any, but you never know.”

“I wonder how it got up here,” contemplated Warriors.

“Maybe someone was playing a prank?” suggested Hyrule.

“Pretty bad prank, someone could have died.”

“I guess Skyloft isn’t so perfect after all…”

“Well, they’ve shut it down and said they’re looking into it,” said Twilight after running back around the side, “I told them we could take care of it, but they seemed pretty insistent that the job be given to the Knight’s Academy. I get the feeling they don’t have a lot to do around here anymore.”

They wandered around for a bit after that, sticking to the sides of the fair where it was quietest and the crowds were thinner. They weren’t much in the mood for any more rides or attractions and Legend was definitely okay with that. He had decided that fairs were not exactly his thing.

“Hey, there you are!”

Sky came running towards them, Time not far behind.

“Have you had fun so far? It’s pretty exciting don’t you think!”

“You could say that,” muttered Four.

“Although,” Sky continued, “I heard there was a Stal on the loose in the haunted house, the Academy was going crazy.”

“Yeah, we were there,” said Wild.

“You alright?” asked Time, concerned as he looked them over.

“Yeah, nothing we couldn’t handle.”

“You should’ve heard War scream in the haunted house though,” Wind chuckled, “he screams like a girl.”

“I do not!”

“Yeah you do,” everyone said at the same time humorously.

“Well there were monsters on the loose, of course I was a bit tense!”

“You didn’t know that!”

“Intuition.”

“Intuition?” Four said disbelievingly.

“Yeah, I _knew_ there was something freaky going on in there.”

“I’m sure you did, oh brave Captain.”

“I did!-“

“Wait guys, shush,” Sky interrupted excitedly, “I think Shadowtide is about to start!”

They all looked up to the sky, wincing at the bright light, and watched amazedly as the beginnings of a shadow started to pass over the sun.

“That’s amazing,” muttered Four.

The world ever so gradually started to go dark as the circle of shadow engulfed the sun, despite it being the middle of the afternoon. As shadows fell over the vibrancy of Skyloft, the flickering lamps took over the sun’s work and lit the air from the ground up. Thousands of lamps flickered all over the island in a sea of fire with them in the midst of it all. The sun above was a ring of golden light and Legend tried to work out what kind of magic could be powerful enough to create a phenomenon like that, what force could be strong enough to block out something that powerful.

Time let out a low whistle.

“Well, that’s not something you see every day.”

“It’s tradition that everyone makes a lamp and puts it out to light the way,” explained Sky fondly, “Many years ago, Shadowtide was something that was feared, but people came together to light the darkness. It’s meant to represent community and happiness.”

“Do you have a lamp?” asked Wind.

“Zelda put mine out for me this time, I asked her just now at the Academy.”

“It’s pretty special,” said Legend, awed.

Despite everything that had happened that day with the haunted house, he realised he really did appreciate the friends he had made on this adventure. There might have been a time when, looking at something like this, the sense of community, the families huddled together to watch the lights, he might have been jealous. Now, however, his heart was filled with warmth as he stood with the ridiculous, wonderful family he had found in the most unexpected of ways.


End file.
